Every year is special, but this was much more than that for me. Amidst second wave of Covid, I survived and most beautifully, I got married this year. I cannot forget, how hard the process is of getting married in India (yes, to a partner you want to marry), unless you found yourself lucky. Though, most of my year surrounded around same, and not achieved something marvelous apart from this but 2021 brought lots of learning for myself.

Theme for 2021 was to get married with the one who is happily my wife today 😊. Apart from enjoying my courtship & preparing well for my wedding (more than I used to prepare for my exams), I had 3 focus areas for the year:

• Minimalism:
  • The path towards focus & clarity. Aim was not to add things in life but to remove that are just getting messy and distracting me. I moved a bit in physical minimalism by not purchasing things I didn’t need and removing that is just being stored in my house as clutter. Also, as part of digital minimalism, I tried structuring the notes, pictures, drive and lot more and deleting the unwanted stuff. Cannot mention, how much peace it was to my mind, and journey had just begun.
• Physical Wellness:
  • Aah, not so well. There were 2 times when I genuinely moved back in running but both times I got sick. Once, Covid caught me (not badly though) and dengue, the other time which sucked the energy out of my body. Nevertheless, I was able to run 11 kms after 653 days which was a huge achievement coming back in zone. I didn’t achieve what I was targeting but that gave me the realization of how important running is for my health, not only physical but mental health as well. o professional events this year, but will go definitely in 2022.
• Self-awareness:
  • I tried lots of things in this area, and able to move well I believe. Though, I started with many ideas and on the way learned more about myself. It all started with regular habit of bullet journaling and meditation some of the days. I started writing my own book in finance but stopped due to other priorities, started working on building a platform for mental awareness but paused in between. It might look like I didn’t complete any of those things but the clarity those bits have brought were enormous. I was able to get lot more clarity in my financial life. Better of everything is gaining lot more self-confidence to achieve high things & understanding the importance of narrowing down my focus to few, though most impactful things.

Here are some of the small things I feel proud about myself for the past year:

• 26 Jan: Walking 26.1 kms, being more than 6:30 hrs on foot
• Able to fast till 4 PM
• 20 mins of doing nothing
• Digital detox for 58.5 hrs (Yes, smae distance I ran on 1 day)
• Vaccinated with 2 doses and survived the covid wave  
• Selected as ambassador for Crypto Exchange CoinsBit, continued for some time and then quit voluntarily to focus on other priorities.
• Skipping done 260 in a go, and total of 579
• Ran 11.01 kms after 653 days

Few of the learnings/realizations I made in 2021:

• Treat every month as big year so that if you are occupied in life admin chores, start a new month fresh with ideas and reflections.
• Realized that I am stuck in fighting daily battles and it will never end. Cut the crap and start with what truly matters.
• Do at-least 1 thing every day that makes you closer to your goals/passions – not only life admin tasks and work.
• Must take at-least 30gms of protein within 30 mins of waking up (or at-least during breakfast)
• Day trading is not for me, either in stocks or crypto.
• Minimum sleep is necessary, if not able to sleep at night due to some reasons, ditch waking up early rather complete a sleep.
• Realization that I am spending lot of time in crypto trading and small things that are not worth my efforts, try few but big stuff.
• Most things that I delay on is driven by impact due to money – like delay in planning a Maldives trip and buying used car.

While I intentially didn’t worked on many ideas focusing on enjoying my courtship period, I put every idea on my journal. And, looking back I have 45 ideas lined up to reflect, brainstorm and work on. And Good part was tracking my wealth on monthly basis which gives me a big picture on my future financial life.

Travel:

Owning to travel in covid times wasn’t so feasible, and we also seen a drop in tourism industry. But, again thanks to my marriage, which gave me the chance to travel and celebrate my honeymoon in the beautiful place Maldives. Cannot say, how beautiful the place was. It was just amazing and calming where we relate to sand & water, not our boring smartphones. Sharing some glimpse from the resort ‘Centara Ras Fushi Spa & Resort’

Running:

No events ran, but total of 410+ kms ran in year. I could say is too way less – not even 2kms of average per day, but coming out of injury is never easy. Good part was I was able to run 12.01 kms and I touched that distance after 656 days.

Learnings:

Webinar on straddles: I attended 1 online webinar on straddles (related to derivatives options trading) as I was enjoying options writing much.

I didn’t read any 1 book this year, as I was changing my topics of interest and so moved to buying medium subscription which gave me access to lots of different topics. And this has improved my mindset a lot digging into variety of though topics of interest ate various levels. Here is link to some of my favorite articles from 2021: https://twitter.com/varunbagga8/status/1489453363838160898

Here are my favorite tweets from 2021: https://twitter.com/varunbagga8/status/1478309500264189960

Small thread on anxious achievers: https://twitter.com/varunbagga8/status/1417774874471239685

Crisp snippets from the book walk like Buddha that I read in 2020: Walk like a Buddha: https://twitter.com/varunbagga8/status/1405107268136230915

So, what’s in for 2022?

Theme for this year is to build parallel stable income source and enjoying the first year of my married life. As planned, we’ll able to set ourselves before Q1 of 2022 and further focus will be on more trial, experimentation and going further. Primary, this year is dedicated to hustle while enjoying finding my way forward. So, I am expecting lot of failures and big returns in terms of clarity. Yes, this year will going to be big with experimenting lot of things.

Few focus areas would be:

• Minimalism: Like last year, this will be continuous effort and I will approach this with lot of automation in things that could be possible.
• Financial clarity: There is no meaning running towards money, and primary focus would be on having well defined, automated, and agile investment approach defined through goal based financial planning.
• Physical wellness: Like I mentioned, I reached 12 kms mark last year, and this year will be to go further. If I felt healed, target is to run a marathon again.

I have done with preparing the blueprint for this year and started with batching the smallest tasks on weekly basis. And I am making sure to punish myself for not reaching my targets and reward for finishing them. Some of the those (warning: it might sound weird) are:

• Running a marathon under 4 hrs
• To feel energized at most times & should not be feeling need of coffee to stay awake
• Gifting lots of books to people
• Launching a course on Udemy
• New Rap on..
• Digital detoxification for 72 hrs
• Fasting for 24 hrs
• And lot more….

These are just few, a lot is in plate which I will share definitely for the next year.

Stay happy, and enjoy 2022 😊